Canada Gives U.va. Big Hope

Dave Fairbank

What would have amounted to a couple thousand dollars worth of custom ice hockey equipment landed the University of Virginia an offensive lineman.

That's sort of the A and the Z of Austin Pasztor's unusual journey from the college football hotbed of Ontario, Canada, to Charlottesville, with plenty of the alphabet in between.

The previous 15 months for Pasztor included a spot on a Canadian all-star team, a year at Fork Union Military Academy, a college scholarship, and most recently, a battlefield promotion that placed the 17-year-old freshman in the starting lineup for the Cavaliers' 31-0 rout against Maryland.

"I can remember when playing D-I football was only a dream," Pasztor said. "Thinking, just being able to play on the team would be nice. All of a sudden, you find out you're not going to get redshirted this year, and then you find out, well, you're going to start this game.

"It just keeps on progressing. It's never what you would expect before all this."

Pasztor figures to get his second consecutive start Saturday when the Cavaliers host East Carolina, courtesy of a knee injury that sidelined senior left guard Zak Stair.

Cavs CEO Al Groh said that Pasztor performed "nicely, not fantastically" against Maryland - a game in which Virginia rushed for 201 yards, had a 10-minute advantage in time of possession and surrendered only one sack.

"The most impressive thing about him," Groh added, "is that he had no mental errors."

The most impressive thing about Pasztor, to the average person, are his dimensions. He is every bit of 6-foot-7 and 310 pounds, and he doesn't turn 18 until next month.

"What I do know," Cavs quarterback Marc Verica remarked, "is they're both ridiculously large human beings. I've never seen anybody that big at that age."

Verica continued: "There's tremendous potential there. Working next to Gene will only help him. I couldn't be happier working with a left side like that."

Pasztor grew up on a tobacco farm in Langton, Ontario, a town on Lake Erie roughly two hours equidistant from Detroit and Buffalo.

Like nearly all Canadian kids, he began playing hockey just about the time he started school. He gave up the game in the ninth grade, when he decided that becoming the world's biggest goalie probably wasn't the wisest athletic path.

Well on his way to 6-7 and 300 pounds, his folks would have had to shell out, he figured, at least a couple grand for oversized, custom-made skates, goalie pads and assorted hockey paraphernalia.

Pasztor began to concentrate on football, a distant second to hockey in the Canadian sports pecking order, and he switched to hoops in the winter.

"Obviously, hockey is the most popular sport," said Pasztor, whose older brother Matt plays Junior A league hockey. "The hockey players get all the girls, and the football players are kind of left in the dust."

College football in Canada is a step or two above club level. No scholarships, small stadia, limited interest, comparatively shallow talent pool.

Through talent and connections, Pasztor landed a spot on a Canadian prep all-star team that traveled to Fork Union in 2007 for a few days of clinics and scrimmages. He made an immediate impression on longtime FUMA coach John Shuman, who was in the market for linemen.

Pasztor left home at 16, hoping to get noticed by U.S. college coaches.

"Fork Union's a tough place to go," he said. "Obviously, it's not the most fun, but I think overall it was a good experience for me. It got me to focus on football and school."

Shuman got a diligent, conscientious, if somewhat raw, talent.

"You've really got to appreciate guys who come in behind and work their tails off to catch up," Shuman said, "and that's what we really appreciate about him. He had no attitude, no ego. He's just a big ol' young kid who worked hard. He's smart. He was able to take our coaching and transition it to what we wanted to do."

Pasztor accepted Virginia's scholarship offer just a few days after a December visit and rejected overtures from Miami, Michigan State and Connecticut.

Ten months later, he's playing U.S. major-college football - delivering blows, rather than having hockey pucks bounce off of him.

Better to give than receive.

Dave Fairbank can be reached at 247-4637 or by e-mail at dfairbank@dailypress.com. To read more from Fairbank, read his blog at dailypress.com/fromthetarpit.